Draft Gilda 2010

Is South Carolina ready for a black Governor? How about a woman Governor - or better yet a black woman Governor? If you ask the folks at the Progressive Network the answer is yes, which is why they're trying to convince the only Democrat in South Carolina with both huge name recognition and actual political clout (and the ability to potentially draw in some serious coinage) to take up the gauntlet for office in 2010. From SCProNet:

 

It's been seven long years since a movement to draft Gilda Cobb-Hunter to run for governor ran into ran into a roadblock: the prospective candidate herself. "South Carolina isn't ready for a black woman to be governor," the representative from Orangeburg said. She declined to enter the race against Jim Hodges, and Mark Sanford was elected governor.

The buzz among friends who know her best is that she is open to reconsidering a run for governor or, perhaps, taking on Sen. Jim DeMint for his US Senate seat.

A lot has changed in seven years, not the least of which is that we have a black man in the White House. While white men — from president, to governor to the legislature — have proven their inability to meaningfully address the problems facing our state and nation, it may well be time for Gilda to reconsider her earlier hesitancy.

The Democratic Party is fielding some nice guys to contend for its nomination for governor. Sen. Vince Sheheen of Camden, Rep. Harry Ott of Calhoun County, and Mullins McLeod of Charleston are names being mentioned. But they don't resonate with the demand for substantive change that could inspire new South Carolina voters. We can't expect their candidacies to be far removed from the traditional Democratic strategy of playing to the right of center to pick off a couple of percentage points from the Republican vote. This is the "Republican Lite" strategy that has failed for the past 30 years.

But what if a bold candidate spoke to the 43 percent of South Carolinians who did not vote in the last election?

To put it in perspective, McCain got 1,034,896 votes in South Carolina's last general election; Obama got 862,449. That adds up to 1,897,345 South Carolinians who voted. Sitting it out were 1,472,048 of the voting-age population (24 percent of them registered voters) who didn't vote. That's an untapped market of 43 percent of folks in this state who could vote but chose not to.

We only need to mobilize 12 percent of the people who don't vote to turn the state blue. Of all the Democratic candidates mentioned, Gilda has the magic to make this happen. She is the one person in the legislature that who be counted on to vote in the interest of working people, minorities and the disenfranchised. Her candidacy for governor or US Senate would inject a level of enthusiasm into the race — helping all Democratic candidates — that nobody else could provide.

I think Sic Willie just got a boner because if there's one person he (and most other republicans) loves to hate to love more in South Carolina Politics it's Gilda Cobb-Hunter. That of course is probably the crux of any decision she'll make as whether or not to accept the laurel wreath from the Progressive Network and potentially the Democrats at large. A point of which the ProNet touches on slightly above - unlike previous candidates for this high office from the Democratic Party - Gilda is an actual democrat and not a Republican lite, which is to say not a DINO/RINO to use the political parlance, which would definitely add to any contentiousness that a gubernatorial race in SC has.

 

What do you think? Should she run or not? e-mail the Network at scprogressivecaucus@earthlink.com and let them know - they'll pass on your words of encouragement or otherwise and maybe you too can help draft Gilda for 2010.

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